Operation: TUTOR
by TheNocturne
Summary: When Wally's grades at school are terrible, his parents ground him. Nigel is furious and demands that he find a tutor so that he can continue in the KND. When Kuki agrees to tutor him, and a new threat appears, will it be love, destruction, or both?
1. Things Aren't Looking So Good

**This is my first attempt at ever writing anything KND related, so I'm really hoping that it will be a success. It should be interesting, at least for me! Anyway, if you haven't already guessed, this is a 3/4 story with a sprinkle of action. Yum!**

(and a disclaimer, of course: KND doesn't belong to me. If it did, I'd be living in an awesome mansion somewhere tropical or something.)

**Anyway, this chapter is pretty short, but that's because I just needed to introduce the plot a bit. Read and review, if you can? :D**

**Sadie, over and out!**

--

Taptaptaptaptaptaptap.

A pair of green eyes was anxiously fixated on the second-hand of the clock, which was very _slowly_ making its way around the face of the stupid dusty clock. Each second was taking far too long to pass, as far as the owner of the eyes was concerned. Maybe the teacher had rigged it to go slower.

But no, she couldn't be that smart. Mrs. Riggs was a grumpy old lady with thinning hair and enough denial in her to ignore it. She was cross, easily angered, and she played favorites among her students. And he definitely was not one of her favorites.

Why? Well, he didn't know! In Wallabee Beetles' eyes, Wallabee Beetles was a _great_ guy, and likeable enough to be anyone's favorite. He wasn't one of the ones who loudly interrupted with the answers, or who cluttered her desk every day with homework to turn in. So in his mind, there was something to like. Cruddy English teacher.

Besides, he had better things to do. Like flick paper footballs at Hoagie or doodle on his papers while he replayed in his mind the night before, when he'd trashed the poor guy at video games. Or, when he was positive that no one was looking at him, sneak a glance across the room at Kuki.

She was almost intriguing to observe. For one thing, it was a mystery to him how anyone could be excited about school, so her smile and the way she eagerly threw her hand into the air to answer questions was absolutely captivating. Not to mention her strange school supplies – a colorful notebook, a pink pen, and a box of crayons that seemed to hold every color known to man inside. Why did she always have to be so colorful? It was so . . . girly.

Every once in a while, she would catch him staring. But, since Wally was convinced that he was a genius, he would have an excuse for it. The easiest one was to tell her that there'd been a fly around her head. He also told her that her shoes were untied, he wasn't looking at her but at someone else, or that he was cracking his neck. She seemed to believe him, anyway. She would smile wide and chirp, "Okay, Numbuh Four!"

And one other time, Hoagie caught him staring at her. That was harder to get out of. "There was a huge ant right by her shoes," Wally had insisted.

"You were definitely looking at her face." Even as his eyes were hidden behind his aviator goggles, Wally pictured them sparkling with mischief.

"Because . . . it crawled up on the wall. Crud, quit interrogating me."

He knew what Hoagie was thinking. That he _liked_ Kuki. That he had girly _feelings_ for Kuki. What a ridiculous idea. If he could laugh in Hoagie's face, he would. Ha! No way!

No, it was just interesting to watch her. Like watching a hyena at a zoo or something. Like maybe you think it's funny and you might feed it, but you wouldn't _like_ a hyena. That's just weird.

"Wallabee Beetles!"

The boy jumped as the ruler slapped against his desk. Her oversized nose was bending over him, and he fleetingly had the vision of a vulture leaning over its next expected meal. He would have laughed, but for fear that she would devour him quickly and cleanly, with no evidence left behind.

It seemed as though she was expecting an answer, so he wracked his brains. Since it was an English class, he felt as thought it was perfectly acceptable to answer, "Prepositional phrase!"

She sighed, as she often did when interacting with Wally. It was the kind of sigh that made you wonder what she had given up to be a measly teacher at a second-rate school. It was also the kind of sigh that meant-

"Detention, Mr. Beetles. Your antics are not amusing."

In his head, he wished that she was some kind of villain, so that he could have an excuse to defeat her. Look, now she had the whole class snickering at him. The boy burrowed deeper into his hoodie, with a grumpy, "Yes, ma'am."

He didn't dare glance at Kuki for the rest of the class, but it felt as though her eyes were burrowing into him. Even Hoagie took the chance to roll his eyes at Wally's obvious impudence. The second that class was over, Kuki was at his side, wringing her sleeve-covered hands in all directions in her indignation. "Numbuh Four, you said we could play video games this afternoon! Now we can't!"

She might as well have been dumping dirt on him, with all the guilt pressing down on him at her words. Cruddy girl. "Can't we play later tonight?"

"Okay!" she replied, instantly happy again. How did she do that? "See you at the treehouse!" He watched her leave, wondering why she couldn't just walk like all the other kids. Was it really necessary to skip?

Mrs. Riggs demanded his attention immediately. "Sit, Mr. Beetles. We need to talk." Oh, how he hated that line. The need to talk always led to bad news. Wally sat in front of her, not bothering to flip his hair out of his eyes. It gave him an excuse to not look at her.

"Now, Wallabee, you're not doing so well in my class. In fact, your grades are slowly getting worse. And your math teacher reports the same." Guiltily, Wally slumped a bit. Could he help it that school didn't capture his attention like other things?

"Sor-"

"No," she cut him off, "I don't want you to apologize. Just improve. I don't want to have this discussion again." She started shuffling papers on her desk, a clear dismissal. He shuffled back to his desk and plopped in it, moodily glaring at nothing in particular.

Right then, he imagined, Numbuh One was probably doing something dull, like checking the defense system for the twelfth time to make sure that it worked properly. His paranoia drove Wally up the wall. So he instead turned to thoughts of Numbuh Two. He would be playing video games and eating chips, or something to that effect. Good old Hoagie.

The girls weren't as easy to guess. They might be reading their girly magazines or talking about girly stuff. Gross. Or maybe Numbuh Five was chilling with a comic book. Numbuh Three, he decided, was probably playing with her stupid Rainbow Monkeys.

Continuing this thought pattern and daydreaming finally helped to pass the time. He was eager to get to the treehouse and find out what their plans were. If he was lucky, maybe someone would attack. Then he could give them a real licking.

It wasn't long before Mrs. Riggs finally announced, "You may go now, Wallabee." About time! Leaping out of the desk, he bolted for the door. His hand was gripping the knob when she added nonchalantly, "I've already called your parents."

Oh _crud_.

-

"I don't believe this!"

Everyone was sure that Mrs. Beetles was going to walk a hole in the floor, with the way she was pacing. If Wally was afraid of anyone in the room, it was her. So he kept his head low, with a silent prayer for mercy.

"Now, honey, calm down," her husband intoned in Wally's defense. But even he couldn't stand up to her fiery anger, so he quieted, leaving Wally to the wolves.

_Thanks, Dad._

"You promised you'd keep your grades up! Wally, this is not acceptable!" Her eyes blazed at him, scarier than any villain he could recall. Vainly, Wally tried to defend himself.

"Ah, Mum, but she's so boring! Anyone could fall asleep in her class." He grasped for some sort of saving statement. "Look, I promise I'll try harder! I swear it!"

"Oh, yes you will. Because until those grades come up, you're not leaving this house."

Silence.

". . . What?" Wally spat out, shock clear on his face. "But you can't, I-" The unfinished sentence hung in the air. But I have to help in the Kids Next Door.

"I don't care." His mother's face was stern and unreachable. "You'll do as I say. No leaving the house except for school. Then you'll come straight home."

Defeated, Wally stomped up to his room to show how much this upset him. How was he going to tell them? Nigel, Abby, Hoagie. . . Kuki. Nigel was going to be furious. And Kuki. . . oh crud, he hoped she wouldn't cry.

Dejectedly, he curled up into his bed and tried to get some sleep, not looking forward to the next day at all.


	2. I Should Have Just Said No

**Hey guys! Here's chapter two up. Once again, it's pretty short, but that's just because I need to get through to where it'll actually get good. Don't worry, it'll pick up soon.**

**If the first part confuses you, don't worry. It's not supposed to be clear. It's just supposed to foreshadow (dun dun duuuuun).**

**And, a disclaimer: I still don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. I wish I did, though. That'd be pretty awesome.**

**Anyway, Sadie is out. Hope you enjoy!**

---

A pair of infrared goggle was chucked aside as an exasperated sigh pierced the air. The night was chilly and uninviting, its eager fingers sliding across the skin like a frozen kiss. It didn't bother the teenager in the tree, though, as he had brought a thick jacket to cover his slender arms.

As if given some unheard signal, he turned and leaped out of the tree. The grass under his feet gave way with a squish when he landed. Flipping the keys out of his pocket, he unlocked the car on the curb and slid into the driver's side, leaning back against the smoother leather seat.

"Come on, baby," he murmured to the car with a thick layer of affection in his voice. The car responded by coming to life with a purr, ready to give all it's horsepower to fly across the open road. The teenager stomped on the gas pedal and screeched down the street, directing the car only by the occasional tug on the wheel.

A voice came over the radio. "Status?"

"Passive."

A sigh of frustration crackled through the speakers. "We got the map down, though."

The teenager was surprised. "All of it?"

"Of course. Our technology isn't as advanced, but it does its job. We have it all."

He laughed in delight at their success. "This is almost too easy."

"You're telling me," the voice responded. He could almost imagine the smirk on his face that was implied through his tone. "It's almost disgusting. One room was completely filled with these weird stuffed animals. They were even multicolored."

"Gross." He wrinkled his nose in disgust.

"I know. There are stupid comic books, too. Everywhere."

"That's not what's important, though," the teen responded tersely, remembering the real object of their infiltration. He ran through a list of facts in his mind, to refresh himself.

"Of course not. But listen. Did you notice something weird?"

"Yeah. The bird that flew the coop."

"Permanently?" The voice was hopeful.

"Not likely."

"Inner tension, maybe."

"Yeah."

"Good for us."

"Yeah."

"Hurry back. We have some things to go over."

"Sure." The teenager pressed harder on the gas pedal, cutting off the transmission with a flick of his thumb. With another flick he had music blasting out the speakers like rounds of cannon fire, enough to make the inner caves of the ears thump painfully. It blocked out thought and invited blank enjoyment, which he enjoyed mindlessly while on the open road.

One of his hands went to the backpack beside him on the seat. Inside it, he reviewed tactilely what he had learned. Locations, check. Identities, check. Surroundings, check. Purpose, still unclear.

Then his fingers rested on his secret weapon. The item that would make sure that everything went according to plan. A smile crossed his face, the kind of smile reserved for more devious situations.

"Are you ready, baby?" he addressed his car, rubbing the steering wheel with his thumb.

Time to play.

-

"So, buys, it's kind of a funny story. . . no, that won't work," Wally muttered as he made his way down to the treehouse. His feet throbbed, but he paid them no attention at all, his eyes on the street ahead of him. "Guys! I think aliens have abducted my parents and replaced them, ya won't believe what they said! No, that crud. None of them would believe that. Except maybe Hoagie."

It had taken ages to find an excuse to get out of the house. Maybe his parents weren't aliens, but they had to be part hawk somewhere down the line. Their eyes, he was convinced, could literally see through lies.

So he'd ended up telling them the truth. Sort of. He _was_ going on a walk, as he said he was. He just didn't tell them that his walk included a path by the treehouse, where he would so coincidentally run into his mates.

"Look," Wally tried again, "Mrs. Riggs hates me! She fails me on purpose! I've been framed! No, that won't work, either." Irritably, he kicked at a rock and watched it bounce on the road ahead of him. He felt a bit of sympathy for the rock; life was kicking him around pretty hard, too.

Well, no matter how he said it, they were going to be upset anyway. So he might as well tell them the truth, right? Right.

It was somewhat difficult to locate them in the expansive treehouse, but finally he found them in one of their conference rooms. They were seated around the table with blueprints scattered in the middle, probably discussing possible upgrades to their 2x4 technology. Every pair of eyes went to him at the same time as he entered the room.

They all began clamoring to talk at once; Hoagie excitedly, Kuki indignantly, and Abby without raising her voice whatsoever. But Nigel was the one whose voice made itself heard, tensed with restrained anger. "Just where have you been?"

And Wally panicked. "I, er, I got grounded. Aliens invaded my house and took my parents up into their spaceship and replaced them with exact copies that keep getting me in trouble!"

So much for telling the truth.

It was as he had predicted, though. Nigel lifted one disbelieving eyebrow, and Hoagie snorted loudly, a big grin stretching across his face. Abby didn't say anything, but she didn't have to. Wally could see on her face that she thought he'd lost it.

"Seriously?!"

Of course, the exclamation came from Kuki.

Nigel rubbed his temples with a strained expression. "Of course not, Numbuh Three. He's lying."

"W-well, sort of. I am grounded," Wally mumbled, scuffling his shoe on the ground. He didn't meet their eyes as he said it. He could hear their disappointment in the silence.

"What did you do?" Hoagie asked first, his face knit in confusion.

"Well, my grades at school aren't so good. . ."

They all opened their mouths at once, but when they heard Nigel first, they fell silent, letting him speak. Wally didn't like the frown that creased his mouth. At all. "I expected better than this. We need your help."

Well, _that_ made Wally feel like crud. He bristled slightly, guiltily. "Look, I'll bring my grades up. Mum'll come around, she's not so tough."

Abby smirked slightly. "Numbuh Five thinks you're gonna have a tough time bringing _those_ grades up. Numbuh Five's seen your homework."

Grimacing, Wally dug his hands into his pockets. "Yeah, well, I can do it, alright?'

Nigel's face was scarier than ever before, a mask of controlled rage. "No. You need to hire a tutor to help you. There's no way you can do it on your own fast enough to get back here and help us."

"I don't need a cruddy tutor!" Wally sank into his chair and crossed his arms indignantly. "I don't even know where to find one!"

Kuki, who had been silent the whole time, spoke up out of nowhere. "I could teach you!"

There was a bit more silence, mostly at the thought of trying to put Kuki and Wally in the same room with homework to do. Thoughts of torn up rainbow monkeys and crying and fighting were on every mind. "Well, Numbuh Three is good in English," Abby said quietly, rubbing the back of her head.

"It would be totally fun!" Kuki chirped, growing more excited by the second. "We could make cookies to eat while we work, and maybe have a tea party, and then he'll pass the test and he can come back and we can eat more candy and he can get us the magazines we've been wanting him to buy and-"

"No!" With growing horror, Wally shook his head. "That's okay, actually, I can do it on my own!"

That was the wrong thing to say.

Her face settled into an expression of hurt, and her lower lip started to wobble. It was like driving a stake through Wally's heart, the look on her face. Like he had personally just stabbed her in the back.

"Fine," he muttered. Cruddy sheila.

Her face burst into a smile. "We can start tomorrow!" She got down from her chair and skipped out of the room, humming a song that he'd never heard of. Wally ran a hand through his hair with a tiny feeling of dread.

_What did I just get myself into?_


	3. From Bad to Worse in the Blink of an Eye

**This one was totally fun to write, I won't lie. I'm not sure why I enjoy writing scenes like this, but I guess I'm just a weird writer. I'm not sure.**

**Anyway, here's chapter three. I'm going to start chapter four tomorrow and I should have that up by the end of the week, hopefully. I work almost every day, now, though, so it gets a little hard.**

**The disclaimer, of course: I still don't own KND. If I did, I'd have my own private jet. And it would be navy blue.**

**Thanks for reading! And thanks for the reviews I've gotten so far. I'm really enjoying meeting such nice people, and it's definitely an experience that I won't forget.**

**Anyway, to the story! Love, Sadie.**

**-**

_Pyew pyew pyew, pyew pyew!_ The lasers blasted out of the cannons through empty space, colliding with a large white ship and disintegrating it on the spot. On the couch, Wally let out a whoop of triumph and grinned smugly at the boy sitting beside him. "That's another 10,000 points for me!"

In response, Hoagie stuck his tongue between his teeth and began mashing buttons faster, his attention entirely on the game. His own ship, a large starship with a docking bay, swerved across the screen and fired away, sending blue bolts into space. He preferred it greatly to Wally's battleship, a tiny thing that emitted green lasers.

"You're gonna lose, mate," Wally taunted, flipping the hair out of his eyes. He was certain that he was going to win, racking up the points and weaving through space until he only needed 1,000 more points to-

Suddenly, the screen went black.

"Aww, what?!" Wally cried out in disbelief, so shocked by the loss of power that he didn't notice Hoagie's fleeting expression of relief. Indignantly, he jumped off the couch to check the plug. And found Kuki standing there with the plug in her hand. "Numbuh Three! What'd you do that for?!" If she was male, he would have punched her, right then and there.

"Study time!" She gave him her face-consuming beam, bouncing on the balls of her feet. "C'mon, Numbuh Four, get your books, hurry!"

A guttural growl escaped his throat. "I'm busy, we can study later."

Propping her hands on her hips, Kuki lifted one eyebrow at him in her best what-did-you-just-say-to-me fashion. He knew it was hopeless to argue with her when she gave him that face. It meant serious business. "You have to go home anyway, Numbuh Four, before your parents get mad. We can study at your house."

Just to show her how he felt, he kicked the door open on his way out. The loud bang it made was so satisfying.

If she ever had the inclination to do so, Wally was certain that she would make a good poker player. Her facial expressions were almost undecipherable. All the way home, while he grumbled and kicked rocks and thought about chucking his backpack across the street, her smile remained the same, as though she wanted nothing more than to drag a reluctant boy to his house to study English. She even had the nerve to have a bounce in her step.

He thought the trip would never end, but finally found himself on his own doorstep. As Kuki had predicted, his mother was waiting for him, her arms folded. She lifted an eyebrow as he entered the house. "Didn't I tell you to come straight here after school?" Wally winced slightly. That tone was not a good sign.

"Well-"

"Oh, Kuki, hello!" his mother interrupted, smiling over his shoulder. He was instantly both grateful to Kuki for diverting her attention, and nauseated at his mother for the thick affection in her voice.

"Hello, Mrs. Beetles!" Kuki beamed, waving a hand happily. The two female smiled at each other in obvious companionship. What they could possibly have to relate to one another, Wally would never know. "I'm here to help Wally with his English."

"Fantastic!" She ushered them in and shut the door behind them, before clapping her hands together, looking pleased. "Heaven knows Wally needs all the help he can get."

Wally fidgeted slightly, embarrassed. "Mum," he hissed through clenched teeth.

"You two can go on up to Wally's room," she said, either purposefully or unknowingly ignoring her son. Wally couldn't tell. "I'll bring up something for you two to eat."

"Thanks!" Kuki wrapped a sleeved hand over Wally's wrist and pulled him upstairs while he mentally cursed her and his mother. She was far too excited about this. Doing stupid school crud could never be fun.

"I don't wanna do this," he grumbled, tossing his bag to the floor. Kuki ignored him and pulled out his English book, which was still in good condition from barely being used, as well as her own. Tsking under her breath, she tossed it to him and then sat on his bed.

"Do you know what chapter we're in?" she asked brightly, crossing her legs. The book lay unopened in her lap, waiting for him to make the first move. Dumbfounded, he sat staring at his own book, looking for some secret meaning in the cover. Had they been using this book all year?

"Of course I do," he answered with a slight edge to his voice, as though offended. "We're in. . . the English chapter, obviously."

Kuki sighed, a similar sound to the one Mrs. Riggs often emitted in his presence. He could see a flash of disappointment in her eyes, and it made him flinch. She opened up her book and flipped a few pages before returning her gaze to him. "They're all English chapters. Open to chapter eight."

Biting back an argument, he did as he was old, pushing away his chagrin. He would have known the answer if his teacher was more interesting, obviously.

Kuki continued speaking, her voice full of authority. "We're studying poetry this quarter, and how to analyze what the author is trying to say. Read this one." She pointed to an erratically-styled poem entitled, "The Red Wheelbarrow."

"But-"

His words died on his lips when their eyes met. For some reason, behind the surface of her violet lenses, he could see the honest desire to help him burning fiercely. Even though she hugged her knees and rocked back and forth like a little girl, her motives were clear. Swallowing his retort, Wally began to read it.

And got absolutely nothing.

"Well?" Kuki questioned when he looked back up.

"I don't know!" Wally muttered in frustration. "He's just talking about stupid farm tools. Maybe he's a farmer."

He could tell that she was having a hard time keeping her face as patient as it was. "No, you have to look deeper than that. Look under the layers of the poem to figure out what he's really saying."

"I think he's really saying that farming is lame!" Wally snapped, feeling irritated. He didn't _want_ to read this cruddy poem about the cruddy farmer and his cruddy farm tools with so-called "deeper meanings." He _wanted_ to go play video games and eat candy until he became sick.

"Think about it this way," she replied, with a voice that was a shade brighter. Maybe she was trying to cheer him up. "What does a wheelbarrow do?"

_This is so stupid._ "It moves stuff."

"So is it important?"

"Yes." He hissed a bit on the word, trying to convey how pointless he thought this was.

Kuki closed her book, fixing him with a glare. "Numbuh Four, I'm trying to help you. Stop being so mean."

"I don't _want_ your help." The words came out before he could stop them, pouring out with all of his irritation. Every inch of anger seeped into his words, making them sharp and capable of hurting her. "Why don't you just go back to the treehouse and play cruddy games with your stupid Rainbow Monkeys!"

Her mouth dropped open, and Wally thought she was going to cry. But she didn't, to his relief. Instead, to his horror, her face became a mask of rage.

"Fine!" With a lower lip that quivered slightly, she yanked up her bag and slung it over her shoulder, her face a furious scarlet. "You can just keep failing! And then we'll go on missions without you!"

He thought he saw tears threatening the corners of her eyes, but she had sprinted out of his room before he could be certain. He kicked angrily at his backpack and tried not to feel guilty at all.

It didn't work.

_Good job, Wally_, he berated himself.

_Aaah, well,_ another voice inside him piped up. _She'll forgive you eventually._

-

"Dude," Hoagie said while adjusting his goggles. Wally slugged his arm and he immediately lowered his voice. "How long has it been since Numbuh Three's spoken to you?"

"Three days." Wally's voice was glum.

"Numbuh Five thinks you messed up big time." The girl was having a hard time hiding her amusement. Unlike Hoagie, she seemed to find the whole thing funny.

"Yeah, I figured that out," Wally grumbled. It pained him to watch Kuki walk by like he didn't exist, clutching her books to her chest while her oversized sweater flopped around her. He didn't like watching her laugh, knowing he wasn't the source of her laughter.

He would never admit it out loud, but he missed her.

"What're you gonna do?" Hoagie broke into his thoughts, tilting his head almost comically. Wally chewed on his tongue for a minute, mulling over the question. But he couldn't come up with anything.

"I dunno. . . buy her flowers? Girls like flowers, don't they?"

Abby shook her head like that was the dumbest idea she had ever encountered. "Boy, you gonna have to do better than that. Flowers don't buy forgiveness."

Frustrated, Wally stalked away, his fist clenched so tightly that his knuckles burned white. He wasn't good at this crud; he could never figure out what a girl wanted and what would tick her off. Maybe it was better this way, when she wouldn't talk to him.

Then he realized what his next class was, and despite everything that was tormenting him, Wally grinned. Gym class.

The coach was a big man with a mustache that didn't look real. His voice didn't need a megaphone to be heard. And best of all, today he said Wally's favorite words. "Two teams. We're going to play dodgeball."

He was so excited that he could hardly stand still, aching to get one of the balls in his hand. Across the gym, he could see Kuki standing on the other side with the other team, but even the sight of her, hesitantly regarding her team, couldn't dampen his spirits. He waited for the whistle like a child eagerly awaits dessert.

There it was. "Begin."

They didn't see him as the master of dodgeball for nothing. It was like physical art, watching Wally play dodgeball. His watercolor moves slid him in and out between the flying spheres, fluid and untouchable. The vibrant sculpted throws hit one kid, then another, then another.

He felt unstoppable. Using the ball he was holding to deflect another, he pelted it at a smaller boy on the opposite team, before a hushed conversation reached his ears.

"Throw it."

"I can't."

"Throw it! You're so worthless!"

He recognized the tiny whisper of the second speaker, and the recognition made his stomach twist. Whirling around to locate the two holders of the conversation, his eyes finally fell upon two boys standing on either side of Kuki, both of them looking aggravated as she clutched at a large red ball but refused to throw it.

She never really had liked dodgeball. Especially when it got as violent and competitive as Wally like it. She was an easy out, and Wally should have taken the opportunity to get her while she was distracted.

But something about the conversation made his blood boil. Like the way that they were glaring at her as though she should crawl in a hole and disappear. Or the way the larger boy's lips curved upward into a sneer as he voiced the word "worthless."

"Oi!"

He wasn't sure what made him do it, but he picked up a ball nearby and hurled it at the larger boy, taking him by surprised as it knocked into his head. The other one reacted quickly, yanking the ball out of Kuki's hand and catapulting it across the floor at Wally.

_Too easy_. Wally caught the ball neatly in his hands and smirked as the boy was declared out. He would have let out a whoop of triumph, but the game wasn't over and he had plenty more kids to knock off the floor.

But he didn't miss Kuki's small smile of gratitude.

And he definitely didn't miss the way it made his heart lift.

-

"The bird has returned."

"But not fully."

"No. But it's something to watch."

"We got the information."

"Oh, good. And the blueprints?"

Her feminine voice was hard, a total contrast from how soft it normally was. "Of course. We'll be able to move soon."

"I'm coming back." Shifting slightly, he pulled back the wheel, and the black jet disappeared into the thick clouds in the sky.


	4. Maturity is Overrated, but Necessary

**I know I said that this chapter might take a while, but then I got hit with a writing mood last night and pretty much got the entire thing written. I spent this morning reading and editing and typing it up.**

**If there are mistakes, I'm sorry. I'm in a bit of a hurry, I have to leave for work in five minutes, so I was typing pretty fast. Let me know and I'll make any changes if it gets too bad.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I think it's starting to get a little interesting, don't you?**

**Disclaimer: I still don't own KND. And "The Red Wheelbarrow" is an actual poem by William Carlos Williams. I borrowed it for this story. It made me remember my English teacher, who was always telling me to "peel away the layers." Thanks, Mrs. Brethrick!**

**Have fun!**

**Sadie**

**--**

_Thunk_.

Wally tensed at the noise that the window made as it finished sliding open, and cocked his ear to listen for any noises outside his bedroom door. He was frozen for an entire minute, listening for any beds creaking, voices mumbling, or lights flicking on. Nothing.

Triumphantly, he stuck one foot out the window and began to shift his body weight towards the outside. The night breeze ruffled his hair and tried to penetrate his orange hoodie, whispering through the leaves of the tree nearby. He was ready to let go and drop to the ground when a tiny voice startled him.

"Wally?"

"Joey!" Wally grunted and heaved himself back up slightly. "What are you doing out of bed?"

The little boy ignored him and crossed the room with a look of curiosity that only a child could carry. "Where are you going?"

There was no sense in lying to the kid. Not when he was dangling out of a window anyway. "To Kuki's."

The boy's face lit up. Apparently his mum wasn't the only one infatuated with the cheerful, green-clad girl. "Tell her I said hi! Will she come here soon, please?"

"I dunno." His answer was truthful. But he had to make sure that Joey kept quiet, so he attempted a tiny lie. "If ya promise not to tell mum and dad, I'll get her to come visit soon, okay?"

"'Kay!" Wally waved his hand, and Joey happily toddled back to his room, clutching his blanket. He'd probably dream of play time with Kuki tonight, with that big grin on his face. Weird kid. Wally loved him.

Now free to escape, Wally dropped onto the grass and took off in a fast walk. He had no idea what he was going to say, but he _had_ to get her to talk to him again. The silent treatment was killing him.

The quiet of the night seemed to mock him by echoing her silence. The trees that waved in the wind laughed at him through their rustling branches. The shadows leered at him with glee.

When he thought it couldn't get any more dismal, the sky joined in on the game and squeezed out a drizzle, splattering raindrops like tears onto his cheeks. It was times like this that he appreciated Kuki. She would have made the scene seem brighter somehow.

He knew which window was the one for her room, because she had very excitedly described to him the lovely garden in her sights, that he had dismissed as girly, and only one window on the house faced the garden. So he quickly scaled the side of the building using the gutter and peeked through the window. The room was full of Rainbow Monkeys. . . it _had_ to be hers.

His hand hesitated beside the glass as he made the move to knock. What if she hated him? What if she got mad at him for showing up?

_A man's gotta do what a man's gotta do_. And Wally considered himself as manly as man could get. Steeling himself for the worst verbal assault he had ever received, Wally gently rapped on the glass. When there was no initial response, he knocked again, shaking the water out of his eyes.

The light inside clicked on, and he could see her lithe form move over to the window. Her hair was ravaged by sleep, and her pajamas were rumpled, but Wally didn't feel like he minded at all.

"Wally?" She must have been tired, to address him by his name and not his number. But she wasn't tired enough to forget to add the icy tone to her voice, he noticed. "What are you doing here?"

"C-can I come in?" he stammered, suddenly unsure of how to go about it. She nodded, but when he stepped through and steadied himself, her tiny nose wrinkled in disgust at his appearance.

"You're getting water everywhere." He strode across the room to reach for a towel on her floor and ended up plowing into the floor, face-first. Crud. But he was grateful for the slip-up when he heard her start to giggle. "That was funny. Do it again!" He didn't even mind her saying it, because she sounded like her old self again.

Toweling off, he asked quietly, "Can I talk to ya?"

"I suppose." With a smile, she hopped onto her bed and faced him, legs swinging. The sight of her, gazing at him with so much earnest, shook him up a bit. Her ability to do that to him was a constant source of frustration.

"Uh. . ." Part of him wanted to just go home. He could live without her talking to him. He shouldn't have to apologize. "'Th-The Red Wheelbarrow" is a poem about how important tools can be treated as insignificant and are forgotten. Farmers use wheelbarrows for lots of things, but seem to forget their importance."

Kuki lifted her eyebrows at him, but he wasn't finished. "Often we forget to see what's really important, and leave the most basic tools out in the rain. We leave them to rust, ignoring the fact that we would be lost without them."

"Wally. . ."

"Just like. . . I treated your teaching as unimportant," he mumbled. It had taken him hours to come up with this little speech, _much _of it with Hoagie's help, but he still couldn't say it without feeling stupid. "Sorry I yelled at ya."

The girl didn't respond right away. Her feet had stopped swinging, and he wasn't sure if that was good or bad. But then she slid off her bed and enfolded him in a hug, one that took all of the cold out of his dripping body and replaced it with warmth. "Sorry I got mad," she whispered to him.

As always, he pulled out of her arms with a face that was one shade too red. It was startling for him to discover how his body actually missed the warmth. But he dismissed the feeling, attributing it only to the fact that he was wet.

"So . . . you'll be my tutor again?" It was hard to ignore the feeling that it would go badly again, but he managed to force out the question. "I don't wanna miss the missions."

"Okay!" Her smile was big enough to be feature on a dentist's commercial. He vaguely wondered if it hurt her to smile so much.

His entire body relaxed. It seemed like every muscle had let go of some degree of tension. "Good. Now, ehhh. . . I'm gonna get out of your room."

"G'night!" She waited at the window while he jumped back down to the yard, and while he was waving goodbye, she remembered something. "Oh! And thanks!"

"Thanks?"

"For dodgeball." With that, she shut her window, and Wally watched the light flick off.

When he woke up the next morning, Wally wouldn't remember the walk home, or changing into his pajamas. All he would remember is that as he went to sleep, he was smiling.

-

"So how did it go?" Knowing that he was impossible to discern with his mouth full, Hoagie swallowed the bite he'd taken before asking his question.

"What d'ya mean?" Wally sounded far too distracted on the other end of the phone. He was probably playing video games.

"You know. With Numbuh Three. Did she forgive you?"

"Yeah. We're gonna try the tutoring thing again tomorrow."

Hoagie finished off his sandwich and pushed aside his plate. "That's good. You two will have a _ball_. Get it?" He could almost picture Wally rolling his eyes, fully regretting telling Hoagie about the dodgeball incident.

"Shut up."

"You'd better hurry and get your grades up. Numbuh One is getting upset."

"What can he do about it, eh?" Wally said smugly. "I'll get them up on my own time, you can tell him to get his undies out of a twist."

Hoagie rolled his own eyes, unimpressed by Wally's bravado. As far as he was concerned, there was a thin line between bravery and idiocy. "Just get the- woah!"

"What?!"

Leaping off his chair, Hoagie moved over to investigate his window. He couldn't shake the feeling of chills that were shooting up and down his spine like bullets. Looking out into the grey beginning of sunrise, the face that he saw nothing did not comfort him.

"Mate!" Wally said impatiently. "Tell me what ya screamed about!"

"I could've sworn I just saw somebody at my window."

"Like a creeper? No offense, mate, but who would stalk _you_?"

"No. . ." Hoagie was too shaken to feel insulted. "Like a teenager."

That shut Wally up pretty quickly.

"We should go tell Numbuh One!"

"Grounded, remember?"

"Okay, I'll go tell Numbuh One. You keep careful, okay?"

"Yeah, yeah." Wally huffed a bit, obviously bored with staying home. Shaking his head, Hoagie smacked the phone into its cradle and hurried off to call an emergency meeting.

-

"Are you sure?"

"Positive."

"But maybe-"

"They're just stupid kids, after all."

"Well, yeah, but-"

"Hey." He wrapped his arms around her waist, laughing. "Don't worry about it. We've got it covered."

A giggle escaped her lips as she struggled slightly. "Stop it." She was fighting a smile and losing. "Before the other two see us."

Reluctantly, he dropped his arms. "We already know all about them. And now that we let one of them see us, things might finally get interesting."

"Just don't let Nicco play with his food too long before he eats it. He has a sick mind. I know they're just kids, but seriously, I hate watching him."

A chuckle. "We'll see."


	5. Strawberry Scented

**Blaaaargh, I'm such a liar. First I tell you guys, "Oh, it might take a while since I work every day," and then I get the next chapter up the next day. And then I promise, "I'll try to keep them regular," and then it takes me several days to get this one up. I'm such a failure, sorry!**

**If it makes you guys feel any better, one of the reasons it took me a while is because I'm working on a one-shot that should be up soon. I think it's rather cute, but we'll see.**

**I also went to go see The Proposal. SO CUTE! Seriously, that movie was adorable. I'm in love with it, you all should go see it.**

**If you're looking for any good music, check out "Sanctus Espiritus" (it's also called "Our Solemn Hour") by Within Temptation. It's a really good song. I'm also hooked on the song "Prisoner" by Jeffree what's-his-last-name. It's kind of a creeper song, but it's catchy.**

**Okay, I'll stop rambling now and let you go on to the story. I hope you enjoy this chapter, I sure did.**

**(I can't forget my disclaimer!: I still don't own Kids Next Door. If I did, I'd have a pet wolf, and that is no lie.)**

**Love, Sadie**

----

"Are you sure?" Nigel asked for what might have been the sixteenth time. Hoagie had lost count. Exasperated, he rolled his eyes and gave a nod to affirm what he had reported.

"It definitely seemed like a teenager. And he had pimples all over his face and he was smirking like this." Actually, the expression that he pulled was much more comical and significantly less sinister, particularly on the boy's jolly features.

He could understand why Nigel kept asking, why _all_ of them kept questioning him. To find a tiny hole, a miniscule piece of evidence that it had merely been Hoagie's imagination, would be enough to dispel the feeling of dread that was slowly leaking into the air around them.

Kuki's small voice carried the only hope that any of them had left. "It could have been anything, though. . . a prank, maybe?"

"I don't think so." Hoagie popped a chip into his mouth and chewed, appearing thoughtful. "It seemed like he had a purpose. And he was dressed all in black. It just feels evil to me."

"Numbuh Five thinks we should wait and see what happens next," the girl piped up as she peered at them from beneath the rim of her cap. "We can't do anything. So why worry?"

"I have to agree with Numbuh Five," Nigel said authoritatively, and this carried the same effect as an order to them. The others fell silent. "Keep a sharp eye out and be careful. I will check and strengthen our defense systems, but until anything else happens, watch your back." He gave a jerk of his hand, a signal that they could leave, while he stayed behind, staring at the wall. It made Hoagie feel sorry for their leader at times.

"Hey, girl, you wanna chill at the mall or somethin'?" Abby asked the glum-looking girl next to her. Although she had voiced no complaints, Hoagie felt certain that her dim demeanor was due to the absence of a certain orange-wearing figure.

"I can't," she answered, shrugging in apology. "I have to go tutor Numbuh Four." At her own words, she visibly brightened, a sight that was interesting for all those around her to observe. It was as though she had only then realized that her plans included Wally in them.

"Good luck," Abby grinned, leaning back in her chair and propping her legs on the table. "You gonna need it."

"Bye!" Oblivious to the attempted insult at the object of her affection, Kuki skipped out with a bag over her shoulder, a seeming personification of the phrase "without a care in the world."

"How long before they start arguing again?" Hoagie mused aloud, looking after her with nothing but amusement.

"Numbuh Five'll give 'em six minutes," the girl responded dryly.

-

The beautiful day had settled into a warm evening, with maple-scented breezes wafting about through the streets. The sky was a painter's canvas, splashed with scarlet and indigo and the smallest hint of gold. Every minute made it darken into a sleepy navy blue, with stars beginning to awaken from their sleep.

Indeed, it was lovely, and Wally dreamed of enjoying it properly. He could list in his mind at least ten other things he'd rather be doing, and none of them included a lumpy old couch or a smelly book whatsoever. A sigh passed through his tiny frame as he continued to stare moodily out the window, his head on the back of the couch like a moping dog. If Kuki didn't show up soon, he'd go back to his video game, no questions asked.

In the event of another full-blown argument, he'd taken necessary precautions to ensure that no one was disillusioned. After conning his parents into going out for dinner together, and hooking Joey up for a play date at some other kid's house, his own house was finally quiet. That way, he figured, Joey wouldn't end up heartbroken if he caught Wally on the verge of throttling the beaming sheila.

He had also ignored his mum's knowing look as she had swept out the door after her husband. Precautions. That's all they were.

Now he waited, boredom hanging over him like a vulture, occasionally wondering if he'd gotten the time wrong. But, no, there she was, trotting down the sidewalk with raven locks bouncing. He had no idea what had possibly made her so happy. _Oh wait._ A grin tugged at the corners of his mouth. _That's how she always looks._

Even her knock on the wooden door seemed to carry the essence of her, high-pitched and bright. _Dah, dah-dah-dah-dah._ For a moment, he toyed with the idea of leaving the door unanswered and pretending the house was vacant. His conscience wouldn't let him, though, and with a sign, he wrenched the door open.

"Hi, Numbuh Four!" Her voice was positively cheery. The thought crossed his mind that maybe that meant that she was happy to see him.

Strangely, the idea made him cheer up slightly.

"Hey." It didn't cheer him up enough to annihilate the apprehensive touch to his voice, though. No matter how _ecstatic_ she was to be here, it still involved studying. Ugh.

As he moved to let her enter, he watched her take a moment to register the unusually quiet surroundings. It bothered Wally sometimes that anyone had ever referred to her as dense. It was moments like this that made him realized that she was indeed perceptive. "We're alone?" Her voice had just a hint of an emotion that Wally couldn't name.

"Yeah." He forced his tone into lightheartedness. "Joey'll be disappointed. He wanted t' see ya."

The news made her smile, and Wally felt a pang of jealousy, despite his thoughts only moments ago. Did she smile like that when someone mentioned him?

_. . . Not that I care._

"Maybe next time," she said happily. "Where're we going to study?"

He hadn't though of that. "Oh. Er. . . the couch?"

Only when they were seated did Wally realize how tired she seemed, There were bags, light but noticeable, under her eyes, and her normal smile didn't seem as vibrant.

"So. . . what're we studying?" His attempt to sound enthusiastic was valiant, but Kuki didn't buy it.

"Did you pay attention in class today?" As if she didn't know the answer.

Embarrassed, he avoided her deliberate gaze that seemed to pour weight on him like falling anvils. "Sorta."

"We're having a test in two days on the poetry section, and she's going to review in class with us. You _have_ to pay attention."

A groan escaped him before he could stop it. "But-"

Her eyes narrowed. "I triple-dog-dare you.'

_This_ was more like it. Wally smirked. "What do I get if I do?"

She mulled over that for a second, and then snapped her fingers. "I won't make you have a tea party with me for a week."

"Two weeks."

"Deal!"

"_And_," Wally's smirk grew wider, "you have to spend a day doing whatever _I_ want to do."

"Fine." Her own grin was challenging. "But if I catch your mind wandering once, you have to take me to the fair and do whatever _I_ want to do."

He stuck out his hand to shake on it, and was surprised to find a grip as firm as his own slide into his hand. But unlike his skin, hers was soft and smooth, and it sent his nerves shivering while they sent electric impulses to his brain saying her touch was warm, so warm, and-

She dropped his hand. The feeling was gone as quickly as it had come. "The test is on different poets," she explained, while he tried not to feel shaken at what had just happened. "And what they wrote. All the stuff in the chapter."

"I don't wanna read the whole cruddy chapter," he grumbled.

"What if. . . I read it to you?" She perked up slightly. "It'll be like a story!"

It hardly sounded fun, but he couldn't crush the hopeful look on her face. That would be like taking candy from a child on Halloween and stomping on it while they watched the horrific scene and cried. He just couldn't do it. "Eh. . . sure."

She opened her book and began to read, trying to make it sound like a best-selling action novel. In her defense, it was a valiant effort, but it just wasn't happening.

Besides, it was all so boring. There were long paragraphs about people who lived and wrote poetry and did scandalous things and then died. What did he care if a poet became a hermit in her own home? So she was a few clowns short of a circus, nothing to cry over.

It wasn't that he didn't appreciate what Kuki was trying to do. He did. But this. . . this was gonna put him to sleep.

The moment the thought was born inside his mind, something strange happened. Kuki's voice became slower, quieter, and somewhat jumbled. Surprised, he glanced up from the pattern on the rug that he had been studying intently and found her with her eyes half-shut. ". . . Kuki?"

"Nnh?" Slowly, she dropped to the side and landed with her head in his lap, a soft sigh like a snore passing through her lips. Wally would have chuckled if he wasn't busy flaring red and getting over his initial shock. She'd _fallen_ _asleep_.

He was hit with a mixture of feelings that presented a dilemma to him, and the strawberry scent that wafted off of her hair did not help his train of thoughts. Should he move? Or try to move her? Or wake her up? Or let her stay there? Her hand, tucked up against her body, grabbed a fistful of his jeans and clenched them like she might a blanket, and that decided it for him.

The only adjustment he made was to slump down slightly, so that he could rest against the back of the couch. The sound of her breathing was calming, like listening to the ocean. He could have stayed there forever and just listened to the roll of her shallow breath.

Before he knew it, Wally had dozed off as well. One of his hands curled itself around her shoulder, and the other flopped to the side. They were so lost in their dreams that neither of them even moved when Wally's parents shuffled through the door in the later hours.

Upon seeing the sleeping pair, Wally's mum began to prod her husband, pointing eagerly at them. As he chuckled, she darted off, only to return with a camera and a smile of glee.

"What are you doing?" her husband whispered.

She shot him an isn't-it-obvious expression while subtly snapping a picture. "This is _so_ going in his scrapbook."

-

"Nicco, what are you doing?"

The teenager who had been addressed looked up from his marble game, his hard eyes flashing. "Playing."

"Shouldn't we be focusing on th-"

"But I am."

He chuckled at the expression on the female's face and beckoned her closer, until she was bent down beside him. On the floor he had etched a circle in chalk, and had placed inside of it little marbles.

When he showed her the marbles he had selected to play with, five marbles made of red, light blue, green, orange, and navy blue glass, her expression cleared slightly, but not enough to let him totally off the hook. Her suspicious gaze did not unsettle him at all.

"Watch," he purred, setting four of the marbles into the circle. "Think of it as strategy." Taking the orange marble, he aimed it and flicked it into the circle, causing both the green marble and the orange marble to roll out of the circle.

A grin slowly spread itself across her lips.

He used the green marble to knock out the one of navy blue. The navy blue marble, he used to get the light blue marble out. And only when the red marble was alone did he reach over and flick the red one out of the circle himself.

"Divide and conquer," he said softly, picking up the red marble in his palm and rolling it around. "That's how we win."


	6. What Did I Win, Again?

**I am SO. SORRY.**

**This week has been a WHIRLWIND of activity. My best friend came home from college and he and I have been happily reunited and doing lots of random things together. Then I went to Epcot, which I've never been to before, and I got to eat fantastic churros. And then whenever I felt like writing, finally, I fell asleep. So I finally just finished this up, just in time, because later I'm going to go see Ponyo!**

**So this chapter is not the most exciting out of all of them, but it's needed. And next chapter, things will finally become exciting! Wally is a silly boy, indeed he is. And he's so fun to write about.**

**So anyway, I'm a terrible person, and I accept that. I'll try to update more quickly, I promise. I'm starting college soon, so it might be a little bit hard, but I have duty to my reviewers, right? Right. Yes. Now, off to Ponyo.**

**Have a LOVELY day.**

**(Disclaimer: I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. If I did, I'd be all paid off for college. Sigh.)**

**Love, Sadie.**

---

When Wally awoke the next day, the first word that his weary brain formed was, "strawberries." He considered the possibility that his mother might be making breakfast, but the kitchen was devoid of the familiar sound of clanging pots. Nor was his family into candles or anything of the sort.

Stirring slightly, he felt the nerves in his body roar to life, attacking his brain with sensory information. Light through the windows. Scratchy couch cushion. Birds calling outside. A faint pressure on his lap. The mysterious strawberry scent.

Like puzzle pieces falling together, his awakening mind began to form a vague image, coupled with a memory. Strawberry scent meant shampoo, shampoo meant hair, hair meant body, body and scent meant. . . _girl_.

Everything sharpened as the realization struck him with the force of a bowling ball in the gut. She was unmoved, still clutching a fistful of his jeans with a grip that would have kept her anchored to just about anything. Her breath still rolled like waves on a sleeping beach, leading Wally to one conclusion. She was still asleep and hadn't woken up previously.

He could work with that. Move her to somewhere else, or quietly slip out under her. He could carry her; the girl's frame was so light. It would be a simple task to move her only a few feet to the other couch and escape into the kitchen, feigning that he'd been there the whole time and that he most certainly had n-

"Nnh." Before he could put his plan into action, she was moving, presumably due to his earlier motion. Wally froze like a dear in the headlights, pondering the thought that maybe knocking out girls was morally acceptable if a man's dignity was on the line.

Probably not.

So he watched in horror as she opened her eyes and yawned. The silent prayer he was repeating didn't work, for when she pushed herself up into a sitting position, he could see her eyes stray over to the couch and his lap. It took the girl a total of two and a half seconds to piece together what had taken Wally a couple of minutes.

"Oh!" Her voice was burdened with sleep and came out cracking. "Did I-"

A shade of red overtook her nose, and Wally felt the same flame threaten to consume his cheeks. In desperation, he clutched at the idea of playing ignorant. "No," he mumbled softly, while he silently willed it to be true.

Kuki didn't buy it. "I-I'm sorry! I was tired, I just. . . sorry!"

"I didn't even notice it," Wally reassured her in a voice touched with bravado. He found that fact that her voice had become about two octaves higher completely hilarious. Maybe if he played his cards right, he could come out looking like a good guy.

Still fidgeting with her sleeves awkwardly, Kuki mumbled, "You should have woken me up."

_I didn't want to_. "I. . . was already asleep." That lie seemed safe. "Poetry is _boring_, remember?"

With a roll of her eyes, Kuki slid off the couch, putting distance between herself and the blonde boy as she fumbled around embarrassedly. Wally was glad that she did, for the red tint of his cheeks was beginning to annoy him. "Remember," she scolded, "you have to pay attention today."

Safe subject. Wally pounced on it. "Don't worry. I won't miss a _thing_."

Kuki matched his smirk with one of her own. "We'll see about that."

Especially when I win the bet. Smugly, Wally just gave a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders and trotted into the kitchen. "Y'should go call your parents. Ya hungry?"

The Beetles were a laid-back family that tended to keep things relatively simple. For Wally, an elaborate breakfast was nothing more than orange juice, eggs, and toast. The toast was simple enough to make, but he wasn't sure about the eggs; usually, his mum made the food.

He could hear Kuki explaining her absence over the phone in the other room, so he couldn't ask her. Shrugging, he cracked a few eggs into a pan and turned the temperature up. _Cooking_, he scoffed inwardly._ If any _girl_ can cook, so can I. This is a snap._

A few minutes later, the fire alarm went off.

Mrs. Beetles sprinted into the kitchen to find her son slightly blackened, confused, and in the process of attempting to pry the black eggs off the pan. Wally cowered beneath her fiery temper. "Wallabee Beetles, what were you trying to do?!"

"Make breakfast," he replied, all innocence.

One change of clothes, clean-up, and lecture later, Wally was carrying out a plate of toast and a glass of orange juice to Kuki, proud of his little breakfast. He was willing to ignore the eggs. "Here ya go."

"Thank you!" Kuki beamed, practically radiating sunshine off her skin. "You're so sweet!"

_Sweet? Blech,_ said his brain.

_She thinks I'm sweet?_ asked his heart.

--

Thinking was entirely overrated.

Wally could picture his own mind, grinding rapidly around and around as it tried to pump the answers from his mind into his hand. The gears would be rusty, emitting squeaks and squeals as the sides scraped against each other. He could even picture smoke leaking out of his ears, floating upward to poison the environment.

And no one wanted to ruin the environment, right? So it was clearly a much better decision to avoid thinking at all costs.

But he had promised Kuki that he would try his best. Mrs. Riggs had thought it a great idea to give out a practice test, allowing the students to see how well they would do. And the next day, they would review the text and prepare for the actual thing. It seemed like a brilliant idea, but Wally could see right through that web of lies.

He scratched his chin thoughtfully with the end of his pencil, trying to remember what Kuki and droned on about the night before. The question was asking about the poet who had retreated entirely into the solitude of her own house. He could remember the situation, but her name escaped him completely.

_Alright, Wally, think,_ he coached himself. _What was her name again? Maybe it was Mary. Mary's a good girl's name. It wasn't Abby or Kuki. Maybe it was Lizzie. Gross, no, I don't want to think about Lizzie. It was a weird name. Something like. . . Crud, why is this so hard?_

In the end, he quickly scrawled the only name he could think of. Mary Smith.

He was extremely grateful that Kuki was on the other side of the room, and thus could not read over his shoulder what he had written.

Sighing lightly, he moved onto the next question. The rest of the test was undecipherable and succeeded only in frustrating him. At this rate, his parents would never relent, and he would continue to miss out on everything, and it was all thanks to this English crud.

Putting his head on his desk, Wally let his shoulders deflate in defeat.

--

"Dude," Hoagie said after class, rubbing his nose slightly in the chilled hallway, since the school had cut the heating budget. But even with the frosty air, his cheeks were flushed with excitement. "I think I'm going to pass!"

"Don't rub it in." Wally slammed the door to his locker, feeling very satisfied as the slam echoed through the long halls. He imagined slamming the door on Mrs. Riggs' vulture nose, and that made him feel almost better about the entire thing.

"So, how did tutoring go?" The amusement on Hoagie's face did not comfort the Australian. "Did you two kill each other? Only to have your remains dug up by your weeping parents?"

"Did ya know you're annoying?" The words came out before Wally could stop them, but to Hoagie's credit, he was well aware that Wally didn't mean them. They were merely a result of frustration. "Nah, we didn't kill each other."

Hoagie popped a chip into his mouth and swallowed. "Seriously?"

"Yeah. We fell asleep. That poetry crud is boring." It was so much work to keep his voice sounding nonchalant, but Wally felt that he did a decent job.

Apparently he failed, because Hoagie's voice took on a more mischievous tone. "You and Numbuh Three fell asleep together?"

"Not like that! Crud, Hoagie, I don't even like girls." The venom in his voice would have killed Hoagie if voices could kill. One might have called it denial, if they weren't afraid of getting pummeled by the tiny Australian fireball. Which, Hoagie wasn't.

"You like Numbuh Three!" the be-goggled boy crowed, with as much glee in his voice as a child at a circus. "You _like_ her!"

"Do not!" Wally growled threateningly, contemplating the idea of knocking Hoagie out. After all, he definitely wasn't a girl. "That's gross!"

Hoagie was not finished, unfortunately for Wally and for those who happened to be nearby at the time, for next the boy broke into song. "Kuki and Wally, sitting in a tree, K-" His chanting was cut off as Wally directed a punch into his easily-targeted stomach.

"Cut it out!" he hissed. "Now tell me about the teenagers." Change of subject, please and thank you.

It was a very good thing that Hoagie was easily distracted. "Oh yeah! They were in my window. Well, one of them was. We have no clues so far, and Numbuh One is all tense and stuffy, like he gets whenever there's a mission going on."

"No clues at all?" Wally slumped slightly, his excitement at the thought of a battle deflating rapidly.

"Well, we got one. Some footprints outside, it looks like there are three or four of them. Numbuh One is prepared for a full-on attack, but I'm not sure about that. Keep your eyes out, okay?" Waving, Hoagie turned down the hall toward his next class, and Wally continued on down is own path, a gloomy feeling following him like a stormcloud.

The feeling only grew when he walked into the classroom and stopped short at the sight before him. It twisted his insides until he felt as though someone had kicked him.

It was an innocent sight. Kuki was sitting in her chair with her legs propped up on top of the desk, laughing at something that a classmate had said. She was the picture of relaxation, and Wally might have been fine with the sight if said classmate had been more. . . female.

No, the boy making her laugh was a classmate of theirs that she often got along with. He didn't care to remember the boy's name; Wally liked to imagine that he had a stupid name, like Hugh.

The Australian bristled, feeling something pump through his veins like an injection, feeding his emotions with anger and creating images in his mind, images of his fist plowing into the boy's face. It was white-hot inside of him and he wanted to give in to the feeling, to follow it, to wipe the grin off of the boy's rounded face.

His feet acted on an impulse, dragging his body along with them toward her desk. There were no words to accompany his action, it was as though there was no connection between the muscles in his legs and his mind. He just wanted to be there, and that was all.

"Kuki!" The word spat itself through his lips, angry and quick. She looked up in surprise, and the smile she graced him with did nothing to calm his. . . emotion. The emotion that he could not name. "You're going to help me tonight, right?"

"Oh!" Her swinging legs counted the seconds while he waited for her response, not knowing why he had said that, but strangely pleased that he had. "Well. . . do you want me to?"

_Yes_. Suddenly embarrassed, Wally's voice suddenly came out considerably quieter. "Well. . . I wanna pass the test, so I can go on missions again. Ya. . . don't have to, if ya don't want to." Curse the red that was slowly creeping up on his neck!

"No, I'll help!" she smiled, tilting her head. The tension in Wally's fibers relaxed, leaving the boy feeling considerably happier.

"Good. Yeah, good. Joey'll be happy." A triumphant feeling swept through him when she laughed. _Yeah. I can make her laugh, too. That's right._

"See you tonight, then!" she chirped, turning away to give her attention to the teacher who had slid into the classroom, unnoticed beneath the tension between his students.

"Yeah. Tonight." Wally went back to his desk, feeling like the victor. Of what sort of contest, he couldn't tell. But it was a feeling that made him sit up straight and look forward with a strange sort of pride, catching Kuki's eyes every once in a while and flushing when her lips twitched upward.

_I win._


	7. My Kryptonite

**And finally, we have some action! Not a lot, yet, but don't worry, the action scenes are sitting and awaiting the chance to slap themselves across my pages. This chapter is more of an introduction, but I like it nonetheless.**

**I want to thank my reviewers, because you all have been seriously awesome. To hellopandaluver, flirtykuki, sstoons3425, tater06, Laurie43, Kameko-Lullaby, and to all the other reviewers who have faithfully kept bombarding me with kind words, you are all amazing and are the reason that I'm so happy while I write this.**

**Also, I'd like to mention that if you haven't read "The Hunger Games," you are seriously missing out. Read it. It's amazing.**

**And last but not least, I would like to admit that Abby is almost as much fun to write for as Wally is. I enjoyed it. Now, I'll stop babbling and let you go on and read the chapter.**

**Disclaimer - I don't own Codename: Kids Next Door. If I did, I'd buy a program that would type the words for me while I speak into a microphone. Wouldn't that be cool?**

**Love,**

**Sadie**

**--**

_Thunk. Thunk. Thunk._

The noise was going to drive Abby to consider possible means of strangling the goggled boy in the corner, with its continuous and invasive nature. The sound of the hammer, pounding against the hard metal, was enough to ruin the afternoon of anyone who was looking for a moment of peace.

She thought about saying something to the boy, but decided on an action that was much more satisfying. In one deft motion, a round, red object soared across the room, striking the boy square in the back and startling him into dropping the hammer on his toes.

"Numbuh Five!" It was amusing to watch him hop around on one foot, and Abby didn't feel the least bit sorry for him, not even when he pulled an expression of pain. "What was that for?!"

"That bangin' is drivin' Numbuh Five nuts," she informed him loftily, settling back down to read. "Can't you find somethin' quieter to do?" Flicking a page of her magazine, she didn't even wait for him to answer. Lazy days were the best.

Hoagie grumbled and put away his hammer. It was so dull around the treehouse without Wally around to stir up a ruckus. And no one else would play video games with him. "You wanna play Super Smash Beatdown with me?" Abby recalled always giving him the same answer, and yet he continued to ask her this. Thick-headed boy.

"Nope." He should know that.

A sigh passed through him, which Abby ignored, until he caught her attention with another question. "So what d'ya think Numbuh Three and Numbuh Four are doing right now?"

Abby could only imagine the chaos that was ensuing at the Beetles house, picturing violently thrown vases and angrily hurled words. Of course, that was only one scenario in her mind. The other one included hand-holding and scarlet cheeks.

Sadly, the first scenario was more likely.

"Probably killin' each other," Abby decided, shrugging as though it didn't matter. But it did. She knew that the same curiosity was probably eating away at the whole team, filling them with a desire to know what could possibly be happening between the two.

She had never seen such a destructive pair. Wally was fire – fierce, burning, and consuming. His decisions were made rashly and his limbs moved with a searing determination. It was as though his very blood was filled with heat.

But Kuki was water, like a trickling stream or a lake that sat still beneath the sun. She embodied grace and serenity, and moved with a certain kind of flow that could creep around every obstacle in her path. Even her personality seemed to float along in whatever direction life would take it.

The two clashed – violently and catastrophically. Wally's fire threatened to devour her; his words struck at her and pushed her closer and closer to anger, until she exploded at him and the two ended up in an argument at the highest of volumes. But Kuki was not just a lake; Kuki was a tidal wave, and her rage crashed down upon him, until they were locked in a furious encounter that threatened to tear down the entire treehouse.

Abby could not recall ever meeting a pair of people that had ever clashed so completely and unstoppably as Kuki and Wally. Even their most innocent conversations could turn into an assault within a few minutes, progressing until their faces were angry shades of red and their tiny fists were balled up so tight that their veins could be seen beneath the tense surface of their skin.

And yet, she knew, the two forces seemed to continually pull toward one another, as though irreversibly drawn to the other. Despite the intensity of an argument, it was merely a day until one was seeking out the other again, with an excuse along the lines of, "I need someone to come to my tea party," or "I need help with my homework."

Opposites attract, Abby had often heard. And these two were as opposite as could possibly be. But she didn't think of it as an attraction. She thought of it as a connection between the two, an inextinguishable thread that kept them dancing around the other as two elements caught in a continuous dance. It was as such in nature, was it not? Lava could ingest as much of the land as it wanted, until it met the ocean, which cooled it until it was rock; no longer a threat to mankind. And still water could sit as long as it desired, until the heat lifted it into the very sky, shaping it into a cloud.

The day they got together, she decided, was either going to be the most glorious day in the history of mankind, or the day that the world was brought to a fiery, stormy end.

"I think they're s-"

Hoagie was cut off as the alarm began to sound, shrieking through the treehouse. Abby leaped to her feet with reflexes like a cat, her eyes wildly searching for Nigel. Hoagie was slightly slower to respond, but it was only a matter of seconds for the two to reach the same conclusion.

With feet flying like Hermes' winged shoes, they raced to Nigel's room, to find him running toward them. His voice was a whip of command. "Kids Next Door, battlestations!"

The room, however, felt empty with two vacancies, and Abby pushed down a feeling of fear that shot through her like a bullet of ice. She had to keep a cool head; it was not time to panic.

Nigel noticed the absences as well and his eyes were furious. "Where are they?!"

"Studying!" Hoagie's voice struggled to be heard above the blaring of the alarm, and Abby watched Nigel's calculating eyes try to evaluate the situation. They were clearly disadvantaged with the absences of the two, but that didn't stop the gears in his mind from whirling.

"Numbuh Two, find out where the breech is! We have to figure out what's attacking us!" he barked, injecting the sentence with his authority. Hoagie saluted and was off, bounding down the hallway and leaving the two standing amidst the chaos.

"Numbuh One, what is it?" Abby asked him in frustration, feeling tense at her lack of knowledge. He tried to follow Hoagie, but Abby was not having any of that. In one smooth motion she had side-stepped him and brought him to a halt with an expression bordering on disrespect. "Tell Numbuh Five what happened!"

One sharp look from him told her that he did not appreciate her actions, but it was followed by an understanding. "A ship just passed the treehouse and, from the looks of it, dropped something off in one of the rooms on the west." Which meant that there were probably people inside the treehouse now. Abby felt her skin start to crawl.

"Then we can't let Numbuh Two go over there alone!" She took off sprinting down the halls, and the echoing footsteps told her that Numbuh One had done the same. She had no weapon in her possession, but this did not deter the girl. If there was one thing she was confident of, it was her ability to hold her own in a fight.

Crashing into the room where the most noise was being sounded, Abby let out a guttural growl at the sight before her.

Hoagie had already been taken care of; the boy was on the floor and unmoving, although conscious. The reason for his easy submission was most likely the foot on his stomach, pressed smugly down by a smirking teenager.

"Oh good," he purred. "You came to play."

That was all Abby needed to set her nerves ablaze. She wasn't just angry at the mysterious figure – she _hated_ him, and couldn't find a reason as to why. In two long strides, she was in his face, and she hurled her fist at him while pouring all her rage into that single motion.

There was a sickening crack, and Abby realized with a sense of disorientation that she was on the ground. Flipping back onto her feet, she ran at the male again, waiting for her fist to meet flesh and faltering when it met nothing but air. He was _fast_.

In a flurry of movement, he knocked her feet out from underneath her, and Abby caught the sight of his smirking face as she struck the ground again. With a stab of cold inside her, she realized that he was too much for her. Another male had taken out Nigel similarly, and Abby waited for the final blow, closing her eyes.

It never came. Instead, hot breath brushed against her cheek. "Nice try, sweetheart." He said that last word mockingly, using it derisively as a verbal slap.

Abby snarled and spat on his cheek. "Who are you punks?!"

The saliva didn't even faze him. He stepped back to address the other two as well, but his gaze remain solely for Nigel. "My name is Nicco," he said softly, pleasantly, "and I will be the last face that you will see in this life."

Behind him, a boy and two girls smirked. The boy was broad and muscular, while the girl behind him was sleek, cunning, and slender. Unlike the others, her expression was uncertain. The last girl looked dangerous, with a smile that seemed to challenge the trio.

Nicco himself was the most chilling of the four. He seemed pleasant, cheerful, but it was simply a mask over his deadly instinct. Abby fought to keep the fear from her face, choosing an expression of defiance instead. "Try it," she spat.

As quickly as he'd come in, Nicco stepped back. The dangerous aura in him was gone, replaced with an easy smile. "Not today. No fun. Keep your eyes out, kiddies." One by one, they leaped back out the window, saving Nicco for last. He saluted smartly, teasingly, at them and jumped.

Abby stared at the window with an unfamiliar feeling washing over her.

It felt strangely similar to defeat.

--

"And that's how you can best remember their names!" Kuki finished with a wide beam. Wally blinked at her, trying to make sense of what she'd been saying the last few minutes. Something about pizza. No, wait, that was his stomach talking, alerting him to its rather empty condition.

"I'm doomed," he muttered, slumping in his seat with a cross expression. It wasn't Kuki's fault – she was honestly trying. He just couldn't grasp it.

Kuki's features dropped down into a frown. "No, you're not!"

"Yes, I am!" Wally folded his arms, irritated. "This crud is too hard!"

"Is not!"

"And it's dumb." The insults made him feel better, as though it was okay for him to not learn it as long as it was dumb.

"It is not!" Across the couch, Kuki's eyes shot darts at him.

"About as dumb as your cruddy Rainbow Monkeys." He felt defensive, and the need to tear apart the English crud that was keeping him a captive in his own home. But the comment had come on the spur of the moment, and he felt immediate guilt when her expression crumbled.

"You're so mean!" The words stabbed at his heart, feeding him more pain and guilt than before. He didn't want the girl, snug inside her green sweater, to think of him as mean.

But his pride had a different idea. "At least I don't force others to have tea parties with me." He cursed the words the minute they broke free of his lips, knowing they came from his idiotic masculine pride but not able to stop them from flying out and striking at her.

Instead of responding, Kuki sniffed, and Wally shoved his pride away as he filled with horror instead. "I. . . I didn't mean. . . are ya _crying_?"

Wally's bravado was often thought to have one kryptonite: Kuki's tears. And now, faced with her quivering lower lip, he realized that it could possibly prove to be true.

"Sorry."

Kuki wiped her eyes and didn't lift her head, stubbornly refusing to accept his apology on behalf of her offended stuffed animals.

Guiltily, Wally tried again. "I didn't. . . mean it.'

Finally, Kuki seemed to accept this, glancing up to appraise him with her violet eyes. "I don't think you're mean," she responded by her own way of apology. "I thought you liked playing with me. I really . . . like it, when you come to have tea parties with me."

Wally felt a slight heat begin to creep up on his cheeks, and stopped himself from responding. He didn't even trust his own voice. Bracing himself, he knew one way to fix it completely. He just didn't look forward to it. Hesitantly, he raised his arms toward her, fully aware that he was asking for trouble.

Beaming, Kuki let out a squeal and pulled him into a tight hug. Her ability to change emotions so quickly unnerved him.

He often maintained that he did not like Kuki's hugs, for she had a tendency to grip too tightly. However, the contact between his tan skin and her porcelain skin seemed to send electricity into his core, coursing through each nerve and creating a pleasant hum. He knew that his cheeks had taken on a full-blown scarlet color, and he was merely grateful that Kuki, her head on his shoulder as she clung to him, could not see.

Being around her was frustrating and confusing. Wally fought the urge to pull away from her, caught between the warmth of her sleeved arms and the complexities of the feelings inside him. But for now, Wally sighed and resigned himself to letting her hug him for as long as she desired. He had made her cross, anyway.

He'd try to make sense of the feelings later.


	8. The Thickening Tension is Killing Me

**You know, I'm not sure I like this chapter. I mean, I like bits of it, but I really just don't know. But I'm glad I got it written, and I hope you guys like it, too.**

**I tried to portray a different Kuki in this chapter than I have before. I think behind our happy, cheerful Kuki is a tired one – one that has to keep up a façade almost every day, and who eventually has to get tired sometimes. I feel like I achieved that, but I don't know.**

**I have a couple of one-shots coming the next few days, as well. And if you're interested, go to the story "From Bedlam to Bliss" and check out the second link that I put there (unless you've already seen it, I'm not sure who has and who hasn't). It might be interesting for anyone who wants to see what Nicco, Eli, Ella, and Trystan look like.**

**Also, no one's figured out the trick with their names yet. Maybe I'm the only one dumb enough to see it, yet alone think of it. I guess I'm pretty lame.**

**Anyway, I hope you enjoy! I really have to get some sleep now. Have a lovely rest of the week!**

**Love, Sadie**

--

Wallabee Beetles had good news.

It was easy to tell when Wally had good news, because he turned from a human into moving fireball. His peers knew that when an orange streak flashed by, it was Wally and that he had something to say. The pounding of his legs on the floor took on a new bounce, and he was impatient to let his good news burst from his lips so that all those within hearing distance would rejoice at his words.

Upon reaching his lunch table, Wally didn't hesitate to let his words ring in all their verbal glory. "Test postponed!"

As he had expected beforehand, Hoagie looked delighted. Abby, however, glanced up with a more dubious expression. "Boy, that still ain't gonna be enough to save you."

After fixing her with a glare, Wally took his allotted seat and opened up his lunch. The way he devoured his sandwich was similar to a carnivore tearing at meat, but the others had learned to ignore it. It was only a few more seconds before Wally noticed something that definitely caught his interest. "Hey, where's Numbuh Three?"

"Not here," Hoagie responded, although Wally had worked that one out for himself.

"When will she-"

"Guys!" Kuki screeched into the lunchroom in a style that was very similar to Wally's dramatic entrance. Her face was flushed and heavy with sweat, and Wally had never seen her eyes look so fearful. The others had noticed the same thing, and had completely lost any interest in the lunch in front of them.

As scary as math could be, Wally doubted that, with an expression like that, algebra or anything similar was the cause of her obvious fright.

"Are you okay?" Abby finally asked worriedly, reaching out to put a firm hand on the girl's trembling shoulder. Kuki shook her head rapidly and thrust out a folded paper at Nigel to read, who took it in a single motion and began to read it aloud with an astounding amount of calm.

"_Hey kiddie,_

_We missed you last time we came to visit. That means we'll have to see you soon, so you'd better be careful. You wouldn't want us to damage that little green sweater. Or even your little shrimp friend. If I were you, I'd stay away from the treehouse for a few days._

_Much love,_

_Nicco"_

"I found that on my locker," Kuki whispered, twisting her hands together in anxiety. She had rolled up the sleeves of her sweater, high onto her upper arms, as though to keep it away from anyone who might try to take it from her.

Wally felt himself bristling at the threat to her. They had been told about Nicco from the other three, but this was the first time that Nicco had made contact with either of them. And he would have much preferred that the note had been addressed to him, instead.

"So they're at our treehouse." Nigel's interpretation chilled them all. "And this is probably an attempt to get us to go there."

"So. . . we won't?" Hoagie looked nervous at the thought of confronting the group again.

Abby looked furious, and Wally was suddenly very glad that he wasn't Nicco. "Of course we will. That's our treehouse, and they can't have it! We're gonna kick 'em out!" Wally rather liked that idea better.

Hoagie didn't. "That's what they want! It's a trap!"

"Then we'll out-trap them." Wally smirked at the idea, emboldened by the thrill of the fight. "We'll come at them in a way that they're not expecting!"

"Good plan." Nigel nodded, a calculating look overtaking his brow. "If we catch them unexpected, then we'll even the footing by a significant amount."

"Yeah!" Wally was getting more excited by the minute; this was the kind of topic that he could pay attention to. "We could pull out the kid-a-pult or something and fly right in there and give them a real beating! They won't see it coming, and we'll-"

After a moment, he realized that there was no "we." ". . . Then, you guys could knock 'em dead."

No one had missed his correction, and Hoagie had winced at the bitter tone in his voice that he had only barely masked with his attempt at enthusiasm.

"We'll be okay, Numbuh Four!" Kuki's reassurance was a vain attempt to cheer him up, and he was too upset to appreciate it. "It'll be boring, you won't miss very much."

"Yeah." Hoagie jumped in on the false comfort. "It won't even be fun to beat them. You'll have more fun at home."

Liars. The falsehoods did absolutely nothing to lift his spirits. "Whatever. Kick their butts."

After a few minutes of awkward conversation, the lunch bell sounded, and they began to separate while making plans about their future attack on their own treehouse. Only Kuki stayed behind to walk beside Wally, who was pretending not to notice her presence in his determination to remain angry. But how could he ignore her, with the annoying way that she bounced as she walked?

"Leave me alone," he grumbled. He would have shoved her away, if her porcelain skin didn't look so delicate. The idea of leaving bruises on her made him shudder. But only because she was a girl.

Kuki only toned down her skipping, and began to speak to him as though it was of the most urgent importance that he pay attention. "Since we're getting the treehouse back today, I can't tutor you tonight. But we'll start again tomorrow."

"Yeah, fine." Anything to get her to go away.

Nodding, she turned to leave, and then as an afterthought she faced him once more. Her smile had almost faded away entirely. "I'll miss you, Wally."

He barely had the time to digest the sentence before she had bounded away, smiling once more. And even if she had stayed, he wouldn't have known how to respond; she had rendered him utterly speechless. The sudden outburst was happening only inside his head. _Wally? Since when does she call me Wally? She'll miss me? Teammate miss? Friend miss? Why are girls so cruddy complicated?!_

With a sudden desire pumping through him, Wally raced into his classroom and over to Hoagie's desk. His voice was rushed and it was a miracle that Hoagie caught it all. "When you get home tonight, gimme a call, okay? Just so I know you guys are o-. . . so I know you whupped them!"

"Uh. . . sure." Hoagie nodded uncertainly. "Yeah, sure. Will do."

Wally settled into his seat and let his head drop on to the desk with a force loud enough to startle those around him. No missions, stupid homework, cruddy girls, and, now, his head hurt.

Life _sucks_.

--

"You think they're coming?" Eli flicked away a toy and settled onto the couch, his face a mask of boredom. "This wasn't part of the plan."

Nicco was focused on his lighter, turning it on and then off again before shoving it into his pocket. "But isn't this fun? Weaken their moral before we really strike?"

The girl in the corner shook her head rapidly when she was certain that she was out of Nicco's line of vision. Her hands cradled her waist like an insecure child. Eli gave her a look of warning, and Ella straightened herself carefully and tried to appear as nonchalant as Trystan.

But no one could match Trystan in her cold detachment. A sly smile had taken its place on her face, for the observation of the childish room amused her. In the distance, the school bell sounded and echoed through the streets of the city, announcing the end of the school day.

Trystan caught Nicco's eyes, and her lips widened into the chilling smile that she often carried. "Here they come."

--

"Mo-om! Wally threw something at me!"

Joey's holler carried through the house like a megaphone, and Wally was about a breath away from strangling the kid. If he wasn't so charming, and if Wally didn't have to worry about being grounded even more, he would have strangled the kid.

The boy had come trotting into the room about ten minutes before, cheerful and babbling and like a kid normally is. He had requested that Wally play with him, but that was the last thing on Wally's mind, and, after many attempts to get the child to leave the room, he had thrown a shoe at him. Lightly, of course, but since when did strength matter to a child?

"Wallabee Beetles! Quit harassing your brother!"

As if it wasn't the other way around. _Thanks, mum._

"Look, Joey, I'll play with ya later, okay? I'm busy." Wally began to rub his temples, feeling annoyed and irritated and worried all at once.

"You are not!" The kid could be just as stubborn as Wally, as Wally hated to remember. "You're just sitting there!"

Finally, Wally decided to just. . . stretch the truth a little. "I'm waiting for a call from. . . Kuki. Okay? It's very important?"

Luckily for him, kids were easy to sidetrack. "Kuki? Really? Is she coming over to play tomorrow?!"

"Yeah." He'd have to remember to ask Kuki about that later. "But only if you leave me alone so that I can pick up the phone when she calls."

"Okay!" Easily persuaded, as well, Joey hurtled from the room with all the excitement of a circus bursting inside of him. Wally didn't know how he could contain it all, but it made for rather interesting afternoons.

Which reminded him of his current predicament. He had waited all evening for Hoagie's call, and so far, the aviator had not delivered. It was stressing Wally out; the sun was setting now, and if they weren't back by now, who knows what could have happened to them?

He began to pace, mulling over the options. They could still be fighting. No, someone would have triumphed by now. Maybe Hoagie forgot to call. Yeah, that's it. That had to be it. Hoagie could be a little forgetful, couldn't he?

Or maybe, they were all kidnapped. Or dead. Or maybe they were being tortured right at this very moment, with insidious machinery that threatened to tear at their flesh and cackling figures all around them as they tried to focus with the bright lights searing their lenses from above, leaving them helpless as evil unfolded all around them that would someday make way for an invasion of a conquering army that would take over the planet and-

After Wally's imagination had run away with him for a few minutes, on a course that completely horrified him, he didn't even think about it. He leaped from his window and hit the ground with a roll, the lightly damp grass leaving streaks on him. Then he took off at a run, down the street.

His feet were carrying him; to where, he didn't know. But the growing darkness only heightened his sense of fear, creeping closer and closer and blanketing any light from the sky. Even the rising moon was hidden behind a curtain of clouds, and Wally felt chilled.

For a long time, there was nothing in his mind but the pounding of his feet on the pavement. It was horrible to think about what could be happening, so he simply didn't. He let the rhythm of his feet consume him.

When he slowed to a halt, he was startled to find himself at Kuki's house. It was odd, since he had originally planned on heading over to Hoagie's. But maybe this was more important to him.

Once again, he scaled up to her window, quicker than before. His fist pounded the glass harder than necessary, and he heard a feminine gasp from inside, although the light was off. When the window slid open, he was immediately relieved to see Kuki's face.

He was also startled to see that it was bruised.

"N-Numbuh Three." He gasped softly and tried to keep from letting his rage fill him at the sight of her battered skin. What kind of hideous beast would beat up a girl in such a manner?

"Wally." Her voice was weary with sleep, and sounded much more warm than usual. "Come in?"

He scrambled into her window and surveyed her face even closer. "W-what happened?!"

"We fought with them." Now she sounded weary again, but not from sleep. "We were obliterated, Wally, they're too big and fast and strong." Her hand unconsciously rubbed at the marks on her face.

"No way. They have to have a weakness." Wally felt his heart squeezing at the pain that was so terribly clear on her face. "How're the others?"

A faint smile touched her lips. "Abby's furious that was lost again. They'll regret beating her up the way they did, if she gets her hands on them. Hoagie's fine, although shaken, and Nigel is. . . well, you know Nigel. He didn't say much."

He wouldn't. For as long as Wally had known him, Nigel had seemed to take things in a perspective that none of them could.

Carefully, he tried to get his throat to work again. "A-and. . . you're okay?"

"Yeah." Kuki nodded, with messy locks of hair drifting in front of her face. "Just tired."

Always self-sacrificing. Even if she was in pain, Wally somehow felt that she wouldn't admit it. "I'm. . . glad. Really glad."

The smile that she responded with made the whole trip worth it. She carried the light of the moon, just in her smile. "You should go, now," she murmured, "before your mom notices that you're gone."

"Oh. Yeah." He nodded and made his way back to the window, but not before Kuki had crossed the room. She pulled him against her forcefully, tightening her arms around him and burying her head in his shoulder. It was only then that Wally realized exactly how much the teenagers terrified her.

He awkwardly patted her back, but it wasn't enough. She only hugged him tighter, as though clinging to an anchor. Finally, Wally encircled her thin torso in his arms and squeezed, letting her release all her worry.

He didn't know how long they stood like that, but it was much longer than any other time he'd ever hugged her. For some reason, he was aware enough to realize that she needed this, and that he would wait for her to have her fill.

Suddenly she pulled back, smiling tiredly at him. Her eyes reflected the stars, shining at him from above the bags that outlined her eyes. "Goodnight, Wally."

He surveyed her again for a few moments, and then ducked in and pressed a peck to her temple, just as he had done for Joey on a few occasions of tears. It was the same feeling that he had for Joey in those moments that coursed through him now – the desire to watch over and protect.

Now he knew why he'd come to her house.

Sliding out the window, he dropped onto the grass and waved goodbye at her. As he walked away, a dark figure that seemed to disappear between the streetlights, it was only when he heard her shut her window that he whispered, "Goodnight, Kuki."


	9. Now You See It, Now You Don't

**Short chapter. Full of excitement. I love it.**

**You'll hate me by the end. :D**

**I'm going to keep working on this even though I've started When I Close My Eyes, so don't worry. Although, this story is drawing to a close. Sad, isn't it?**

**Or maybe you're happy about that because you secretly dislike this story and just want to get to the very end, I have no way of knowing.**

**I hope you enjoy it!**

**Have a great week!**

**Love, Sadie**

**--**

"You must remember!"

The command was thrown at him for what could have been the one-hundred-and-sixth time, but he had lost track of the number of times by this point. He just knew that the phrase was growing stale in repetition and that no matter how many times she told him that he must remember, it would make no difference to his weary mind.

They had been at it again for several hours now, and while the dreary work had done nothing to but bore him, he felt that he was starting to remember some of the facts. Or maybe that was just his own bravado talking; he couldn't be sure. Either way, the test was the next day, and it had come down to now or never.

Kuki let out a frustrated huff and put her head in her hand. Given what had happened the previous night, the first few minutes of their tutor session had felt somewhat awkward. But that had melted away quickly when they had begun the tutoring and began to realize that Wally was probably doomed. An on top of that, he was going to go down fighting tooth and nail.

"I hate this," he hissed at her, with a venom in his voice that threatened to burn the paper before him in acidic dislike. If he could harm anyone, it wouldn't be himself or Kuki, no, it would be their treacherous teacher Mrs. Riggs, who he was convinced was trying to play a mind game with him, trying to catch him unawares, trying to prove that he wasn't smart enough to sit inside her class that was too cold anyway.

"I know, but-" Kuki tried to say, but Wally interrupted her with a loud exclamation of utter determination.

"I'll show her!" Ignoring the look of confusion that flashed across Kuki's features, he continued, with a growing vindication of his triumph that would certainly take place. "She thinks she can defeat me with this test, well, I'll prove her wrong! She's the worst villain of them all!"

It appeared that Kuki rather liked this train of thought, because she began to continue it with a seemed hope that it would inspire something in him. "You could show her, Wally, all you have to do is pass her test!"

Wally nodded excitedly, distractedly, glaring at the table as he imagined her face twisted within the features of the wood. "She'll see! I can be smart!"

"Emily Dickinson."

Kuki looked at him expectedly and he tried to recall all the facts about the female that Kuki had taught him. It shouldn't be so hard, it shouldn't be so difficult to remember something about a woman, since she obviously was a human and should have led a normal human-like life, so it shouldn't be so hard to-

Wait.

Normal?

"She was the one who didn't want to leave her house or even her room," Wally recalled, tapping his pencil in a furious pace on the table. "And, and, she wore only white, right? And her poems were really weird, right, like all about death and immortality and they used weird punctuation and junk and so everyone thought she was all strange."

He looked beseechingly at Kuki with the desperate hope that he had at least gotten somewhat close to the answer. She was staring at him with such an expression that he began to fear that he had gotten it totally wrong.

So he was a little surprised when she began to laugh.

It wasn't her normal, giggly laughter that floated across the room in a bouncing delight. It was a full-bodied, consuming laughter that heaved her whole thin frame as she began to shake with each new wave that came over her. She appeared to have lost her mind, with a full few minutes of laughing that only confused Wally further.

"Y-you. . . that was brilliant," she said delightedly when her chuckles had begun to subside. Her face was flushed from her lack of air amidst her breathless laughing. "Mrs. Riggs has finally met her match, Wally. No one on this earth could write down the right answer in such a wrong way."

Wally grinned in triumph. "Ask me another one! Mrs. Riggs will never see this coming."

--

Hoagie thought that the school was on fire, with all the ruckus in the hallway. There was shouting between the bustle of noise, and he tried in vain to figure out the source, for this hallway was the only one that had burst into chaos. Between the students, some of them running and some of them walking as though nothing had happened, he tried to glimpse the cause.

Then he spotted Wally, and a smirk played across his lips. Of course.

The boy was dancing like some kind of ruffian down the hallway, with a paper clutched in his hand in a death-grip and a stupid, lopsided grin on his face. If Hoagie hadn't known Wally for so long, he would have accused the boy of losing his mind or snorting something weird.

Finally he made his way close enough to the crazy Australian to inquire as the cause of the boy's obvious ecstasy. "Dude, what's got you acting like a wild man?"

"Eat _this_!" Wally shoved the abused paper into the boy's face and Hoagie had to back up to be able to focus on the small type that covered the page. It looked like a test. . . and at the top. . .

"Dude!" Hoagie's eyes widened. "Are you for real?!"

In bold red ink, there was a large "B+" at the very top, as well as a tiny note that was written along side it. "_Next time, Wallabee, I want your facts written in a more orderly manner_."

"Yeah, I'm for real! You all said it couldn't be done, but I did it!" He had such a giant grin on his face that Hoagie couldn't help laughing with him.

"Is it enough to bring up your grade?" he asked, starting the walk down the hallway with the shorter boy in tow. Wally nodded excitedly, hair flopping.

"Who knew that one day, weighted tests would work in my favor?" he grinned happily, and then without warning began to sprint away, with his paper flying in his hand and getting more beat-up than it had before.

"Where're you going?!" Hoagie shouted after him, not bothering to run after him. The boy was a human cannonball.

"To show Kuki!" From the distance, his grin flashed white. "She'll be so proud!"

Hoagie shook his head as the Aussie disappeared into the crowd. _That boy is so in denial_.

--

"Three. . . two. . ."

Dark green eyes glinted as they met a pair of icy grey ones. "One. Move."

"Too easy. Let's go."

--

"Kuki? Kuki!" It was very strange that she wasn't at her locker, for that was the most common place to see Kuki after school. Her locker had everything in it; candies, books, stuffed animals, and snacks, so it was a place where she usually resided. Wally couldn't figure out why she wasn't there.

Maybe she was in the bathroom. But after ten minutes, when she didn't show up, Wally was beginning to seriously doubt that. It was very strange.

"Hey, Laurie," he asked a girl passing by, who he had seen Kuki talk to in the past. "Have you seen Kuki?"

The girl shook her head, with her ponytail swishing behind her head. "No, sorry. I haven't seen her since class."

--

Abby made her way down the hall toward Hoagie's locker, with her CD-player in hand. It had been making weird noises in her ears since that afternoon, and if anyone could fix it, Hoagie could.

But when she didn't see him there, she shrugged nonchalantly and turned to find Wally stalking down the hallway with some furious intent in his stomping footsteps. "Hey, Numbuh Four, you seen Hoagie?" she called.

"Yeah, he was down that way, doing his homework at a table," Wally responded distractedly. He then turned to inquire about Kuki, but Abby was already walking away, her pace quick in the light of her missing music.

When she reached the table, however, Hoagie wasn't there. His backpack was there, as well as his papers, which had been scattered in a somewhat disorderly manner, but the aviator was gone.

"Hoagie?"

--

"Numbuh Four, Numbuh Five." Nigel's distressed voice barked out over their communicator with a sudden urgency. "Report immediately. We have a problem."

--

**p.s. I love cliffhangers.**

**Don't you?**


	10. The Time Approaches

**FINALLY, I have something to give you guys for this story. You should feel very grateful, getting this AND a one-shot all in one day, because I hate this chapter.**

**Ugh, this chapter was a pain. Consequently, it's not as interesting as it could be. I swear to you that the next chapter will be filled with so much "interesting" that your insides will pop. Or something.**

**But there are some reasons that I DO like this chapter. I like the Hoagie/Kuki friendship. That's something we don't get to see very often, and it makes me sad. Sure, Abby and Kuki are friends, but I'm sure that she's friends with Hoagie, too. I wanted them to have a moment for themselves. And there are other reasons that I won't describe because I have class in 20 minutes.**

**So I hope you enjoy this, even though it's not the greatest thing ever times a million. Maybe you'll like it, I don't know.**

**Disclaimer: If I owned Codename: Kids Next Door, I'd buy Bill Gates. Just kidding. And I don't.**

**Have a lovely week!**

**Love, Sadie**

--

Drip. Drip. Drip.

The room had a leak in it that was threatening to drive Kuki crazy. It wasn't the water itself; it was the heartbeat-like pattern that just kept going, slowly pounding its way into her skull and reminding her that she was in here and that the minutes were slowly going by in sync with the water. Tick. Tick. Drip. Drip.

Hoagie was in the next room over, and the two rooms were connected by a large window. It was easy to communicate, but almost impossible to escape. The large iron doors were barred and chained, and the stone walls would have needed dynamite in order to obliterate. There were patches of moss that gave the room an earthy smell, one that was unpleasant and rather disgusting.

Kuki turned with a frustrated glare at the sleeping boy and finally threw a pebble at his head. It bounced off and he jumped to his feet, looking around wildly and groggily. When his conditions registered with his senses, his face settled into a mask of disappointment and he sighed, plopping back down onto the floor and looking around glumly.

"What'd you do that for?" he mumbled, looking thoroughly dejected at their current state. While they hadn't been harmed, it was apparent that they were needed for some motive that had yet to be discovered. And that idea was no less scary than the idea that they could be harmed.

Kuki edged over to the window and peeked through it, her eyes wide and terrified. "Talk to me, please," she whispered, with her thin fingers gripping the edge of the window with such force that they turned a pale, cold white. Hoagie studied her for a moment before moving over next to the window and sitting beside it.

The two were quiet for a long moment, before Hoagie murmured, "We're going to get out of here just fine."

Her lips were numb as she whispered back. "But how do you know?" She wanted to trust him, wanted to believe him, but the room was so dark and cold and intimidating. It leeched off of her courage and left her with a hole inside her, a hole that was rapidly filling with nothing but terror.

It was another long while before Hoagie responded, but when he did, his voice was filled with conviction. "Because the others will come and get us. They always do." It was easy for Kuki to hear the belief in his voice, and to know that he truly felt it, but she couldn't quite grasp the feeling like he could. Her breath was shaky and it rattled her ribs.

"Do they even know where we are?" she breathed out, reaching through the window and grabbing his hand. His fingers curled around hers and squeezed tightly, and it took a long time for both of them to speak again, for they were too wrapped up in the silent emotional comfort that they were trying to get from one another. Kuki had never appreciated the aviator boy so much before.

His face was dimpled as he attempted his famous grin. The effort was entirely valiant, but fell short of just a few muscles, and his smile came out looking somewhat weak. "Kuki, who's left in Sector V?"

The question confused her. Did they erase his memory or something? "Numbuh One and Numbuh Four and Numbuh Five."

"Exactly." He tried again to capture his conviction, and this time, it was easier to believe him. "You know Wally's going to tear apart the world to find you."

A small flame brushed over Kuki's cheeks like a spreading wildfire. Her eyes had dropped to the floor in a shy embarrassment, and it was unclear if she was embarrassed because of Hoagie's statement, or because it was Hoagie who made it. It was humiliating that whatever was happening between them, it was obvious to everyone. If something was even happening.

"And you," she whispered in return, to take the attention away from her. One of her hands hurriedly moved to brush her hair out of her face. "Y-you're his best friend." They both paused for a moment as footsteps sounded outside in the hall, but then as the footsteps retreated, their eyes met again.

Hoagie gave her another grin, clearly trying to build her up. "Yeah, but ten Yipper cards says he's not thinking about _me_." The tiny laugh that Kuki gave was worth the small chatter; even in the dismal room, they were able to keep finding ways to make each other laugh. They were going to make it out. They were going to be strong.

Weakly, Kuki tried to tease him back. "W-well, I know who Abby's looking for." It was comical, the way he blushed, as though his face was trying to paint itself with scarlet. She only laughed softly, shaking her head and gripping his hand tighter. His responding tightening grip was just enough to keep her anchored to her courage.

"Let's agree to change the subject," Hoagie whispered amusedly, glancing toward the door. Kuki nodded, and then began to whisper softly about home, reminding him about their treehouse and the best rooms inside of it. Hoagie told her of his planes and his newest inventions, and Kuki listened in awe as he described his view from the sky.

As the afternoon wore on, they continued to weave together stories, describing their favorite memories in the deepest hopes that these would not be the last memories they would ever create.

--

Nicco looked up from the blueprints and scowled as a sharp knock interrupted his planning. "What?" His voice was a bark, and Eli looked suspicious as he edged his way into the room. For all that Eli was bigger than Nicco, and assuredly more strong, he couldn't help but feel intimidated by the devious man.

"We got the two." Eli tried to piece together what Nicco was planning, but it was apparent that only Nicco knew what Nicco was doing. It was a shame that he wouldn't let them in on the specifics of his plans; he would only leave them with the phrase "divide and conquer," again and again. Okay, so they had divided the kids. Now what?

Nicco slowly stood and nodded. "Plan an all-out attack on the treehouse. We'll take this Sector quickly and efficiently."

"Sir." Eli grimaced at the clear dismissal, but continued to stand there. "Why did we take those two? Why not take the two best fighters, the blonde and the other girl?"

Nicco sighed.

He often did that, when talking to them. It was a sigh that was supposed to signify that he was frustrated with them, with their ignorance. It made Eli feel like he was being looked down on, and he often very much disliked it when Nicco sighed at him like that. With a look of the utmost patience, Nicco explained it as though talking to a child.

"Why do you think they're the best fighters, Eli?" His eyes turned to the window in the room, looking out across the city. "Every single fighter that has ever made good history has had someone to fight _for_."

Finally, Eli began to see Nicco's train of thought. "So we take away what they fight for, and shake them into making a mistake?"

"I knew you had some brains in there," Nicco smiled slowly, a serpent-like smile that gave Eli the chills. "Now go. Tell the others. We attack in an hour."

"Yes, sir."

--

"It was the teenagers!" Nigel declared, slamming his fist into the table. He was tense, angry, and frustrated, and Wally and Abby had edged away from his obvious rage.

"Why would they take those two?" Abby questioned softly, her feet resting on the table and her hands folded as she thought. She was the one who was maintaining a cool head throughout the situation, and Wally hated her for it. His own mind was rushing with millions of thoughts; thoughts of anxiety, thoughts of anger, thoughts of the ultimate revenge.

The rage made it clear to him what their purpose was. "They're tryin' to scare us," he spat, feeling his blood run hot inside of him. "They think they can shake us up."

Nigel was pacing very slowly, and his face was thoughtful. "They're probably going to attack soon." Turning to them, his voice became authoritative. "Numbuh Four, go find our missing operatives. I don't care if you track them or find them yourself, but we need them. Numbuh Five and I will hold them off until then."

"No cruddy way you two can handle them by yourselves!" Wally shot to his feet, looking horrified and furious. "They're kill ya!"

"That was an order." The weight of the situation was heavy in Nigel's voice. "We can't beat them with just three of us. Okay? We need all of us. Go find them."

The two locked eyes for a long period of time, an a silent conversation took place. Wally had to trust them, had to have faith in their abilities to take care of themselves. Finally, he lowered his eyes and nodded, subdued. "Alright. I'll be back soon with them. Swear it." Without another word, he sprinted out of the room.

"You really think we can hold them off?" Abby's tone was the only thing that betrayed her fear as she dared question her leader. She had seen them fight.

Nigel shrugged, looking more tired than he ever had in the times that Abby could ever remember. "We have to, don't we?" His gaze leveled with her own. "We will."


	11. Author's Note and Apology

_Author's Note:  
Dear readers of Operation TUTOR,_

_Yeah, this isn't a new chapter, sorry. This is a response to some reviews that I've received that have brought some things to my attention. And before I continue this story, I would like to clear those up._

_**First;  
Someone brought up the fact that Nigel could call in reinforcements from Moonbase.**___

Yes, he could.  
In fact, that was terrible planning on my part, and I will admit it. The thought did not even cross my mind. I will accept any reviews that want to refer to me as "idiot" from now on. Don't worry; I've accepted the fact that I'm a bit of a retard.

_But seeing as how I've already written it like this so far, I'm going to go forward as planned. No reinforcements from Moonbase. Just Sector V taking down the people who have caused them misery. Yes, I now realize that there is an alternative ending that would probably make more sense. I hope you can forgive me for accidentally planning an ending that doesn't.  
((I was going to play it off all cool-like and pretend that I was aware of that and that it was a matter of pride for Sector V. Then I realized how dumb that would have sounded. So there, you guys get the honest truth. Sadie is really just dumb.))_

_  
"The J.A.M. a.k.a. Numbuh I" – you have much more sense than I do and I congratulate you for seeing a clear, obvious ending that I couldn't. One day, I hope that I can plan better, and thank you for bringing this to my attention._

_**Second;  
Some of you have asked if Nigel has someone that he is going to fight for.**_

_The reason that I haven't mentioned anyone for him so far is, sadly, because I feel inadequate to write for Rachel because I can barely remember her character. And in all honesty, I really, really dislike Lizzie._

_However, it's not too late for me to write in a damsel in distress for Nigel to save. If anyone feels like he needs to have someone to fight for, then please, tell me. If you really wish it, I will add in Lizzie or Rachel. And I will do my best to portray them correctly, I promise. I see your points; it's not really fair for Abby and Wally to have someone, and for Nigel to be alone. So just tell me what you think._

_Thank you for taking the time to read Operation TUTOR, even though the author is obviously not someone with any degree of common sense. I definitely do not express it enough, but I appreciate every single review that I get and the support that you all have given me. It has made the writing not only easier, but much more enjoyable._

_Once again, please accept my apologies, that I have been an inadequate author to this story._

_Much love,  
Sadie_


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